Look at What I Got!!!

Yey!!!  I finally got one!  I got an Accuquilt Go!! machine and a bunch of dies!!  Woot!

I am so excited about this machine for appliques.  I hate tracing and cutting out shapes so this will definitely make things a lot easier for me.  You can't really see it well in this picture - sorry - but on the very right is the critters die and I just love it!!!  I think they would be sooo cute cut out of batiks.  Or in baby fabrics - maybe this will make me do a different baby quilt instead of my usual 4-patch 1-patch quilt ;)

I think that a great quilt would be the tumbler blocks - in batik - with the critters in the boarder.  Too many possibilities.  I also want to get the rag dies and the Rose of Sharon die.  I think that the rag die is brilliant and takes away the yucky snip - snip - snipping ;-)  I have a couple quilts I need to quilt before I can play too much with this baby but I am really excited by the possibilities.

What dies do you guys have?  Which do you find the most useful or smartest?

In the Paper Again & a Donation Quilt

I was in two of our local newspapers again!  LOL  It is the same photo of me rug hooking in the Almonte paper and our Arnprior paper.  This photo was taken at the Almonte Fiberfest weekend before last.  I was really blushing when this was taken since I actually don't really like having my photo taken very much :-/  We had a great day just sitting and hooking and inspiring other people to hook.  It's fun to watch people try it and see how easy it is!!  People had to point out these pictures to me since I actually don't often flip through the paper!

I was asked, by a lady who takes some fitness classes from me, if I would donate something for their church auction.  Last year I made a Christmas wall hanging from a panel.  When I was asked this year if I could donate I immediately thought of this little baby quilt I made back in 2005 from a flannel panel and never did anything with!  It's has sat, forgotten, for 5 years.  My husband was cleaning up a stack of quilts from on top of the armour yesterday and he unearthed this little quilt.  I remember doing the quilt to put aside for a last minute gift ~ but I just never gave it away and so it has sat for 5 years.  I am thrilled to have the chance to send this on to someone who will wrap a baby in it.  It's flannel top and backing so it will be lovely and soft for a baby.  Hopefully they will make a few dollars on this little quilt.

As an aside I am suffering from that cold that is flying around right now ~ it is working it's way through our schools right now so of course I picked it up :-P  Sore throat, headache, nausea, sinus pain and itchy eyes and I feel soooo tired!  My youngest son stayed home with it from school today but he's already feeling better ~ so he's going back tomorrow!!  I managed to get a bit of piecing done on my current "leaders and enders" project since I wasn't very inspired to work on anything else ~  but ~ I felt like working on something.  I'll post a picture of that when I make a bit more progress.

Lettering is Hard!

Man lettering is hard to hook!  I finished the hooking on my little Pumpkin House rug today and I am fairly pleased with it since this is the first time that I have attempted lettering.  It's a lot more challenging than I thought it would be to keep the letters straight and even.  And, even though I tried, the second half of house seems to want to go up LOL!  I did rip it out once already so I might just decide to leave it like that.  Or maybe I'll just rip out the S and the E.  Hmmmm.......

Anyone have any tips for hooking lettering?  I think I would love to take a class on that.

I just finished steaming the rug and it looked so nice and flat on my ironing board that I thought that I would snap a shot of it to share.  I think this rug might actually make a nice chair seat.  I found the brown plaid in my stash of reclaimed wool ~ it started it's life as a skirt so it was the perfect weight and it even had little orange stripe running through it.  Brown and orange actually seems to be popular again so maybe I shouldn't have ripped it up :-D

I finished transferring two of my patterns to burlap ~ I actually ended up leaving the burlap over night after spraying it with water.  It worked ok.  My favorite method method for getting wrinkles out of backing, though, is to hang the backing on a pants hanger and hang it on the back of my bathroom door and let the steam from the shower slowly relax the burlap.  This method works if you have a good few weeks to let it happen ~ but of course ~ I wanted the wrinkles out right then and didn't want to wait LOL!  Oh well I got it done :-D

I'd love to hear from you so if you have any comments or questions please feel free to leave them here ~ and ~ I would love it if you would become a follower here since I just started doing that.

Transferring Patterns

I am working on transferring some patterns to backing today for rug hooking.  I'm hitting a bit of a stumbling block though since my burlap is so creased!  What do you guy do for this?  Do you steam it out?  Let it rest?  Put a damp towel on it??  I really don't know what to do here but I certainly can't trace the pattern onto such a creased backing - grrrrrrrr.  I hate it when I actually feel like transferring and something like this gets in my way.  I don't really like transferring so I have to strike while the iron is hot!  For now I've marked the outer limit of the design and sprayed some water on the worst of the creases and let it sit.

I love these two designs offered as free patterns in Rug Hooking Magazine.  They are Hallowween desgns and I just think that they are toooo cute!
The one on the left is "Mister Iggy" by Star Rug Company and the one on the right is "Jolly Halloween" by Spruce Ridge Studios.  I think that it is so nice of them to offer such amazing patterns as the pattern insert in the magazine.  They are both hooked in a #8 cut so they should hook up fairly quickly and be nice rewarding projects.  Needless to say I have traced these onto red dot tracing fabric and am now waiting on my backing to continue.  I hope that by tomorrow I will still want to continue with the, let's face it, boring parts of the hole rug hooking process.  I really like hooking ~ I just don't like the prep part.  I think this is why I don't applique as much as I would like to.  I really don't like the prep.  Silly I know, but, if someone did all the tracing and transferring I would be one happy hooker/appliquer. 

I also traced out a couple of Halloween stair kick patterns by, the now defunct, The Potted Pear company.  They were in a little booklet I purchased a while a go and I think I might get started on.  Hmmm so many projects so little time before Halloween!! 

So please leave any advice that you have about getting the kinks out of your backing easily and quickly please, or anything else that you would like to comment about,  I would love to hear from you!!

Rug Hooking at Fiberfest

This weekend was so busy and fun!  We had a teacher meet and great at my local quilt shop Sew Inspired.  I talked a bit about it in my last post.  And I participated in Fiberfest for the third year.  What a great time we had sitting, and rug hooking and talking about rug hooking!  Hopefully we hooked a few new hookers LOL.
You can see our display here.  Unfortunately I took this picture on Sunday after the event was finishing so it it a bit messier than it was on Saturday morning.  I think that considering that our local hooking group "Rugs on the Go" only has a handful of members that we put on a pretty good display!  A lot of the work is by our most prolific member and she hooks wonderful rugs.  We had one rug hooking vendor there, Loretta Moore, so I of course bought some wool ;)  We sent many, many interested people over to her booth since her kits are so wonderful for beginners.  Everything is pre-cut and pre-drawn so all that you need is the hook.

I managed to get quite a bit of hooking done on my little pumpkin house rug.  I just can't decide on the door now ~ should it be the orange colour?  Or the same colour as the chimneys?

I'm thinking about doing the first little boarder in the gray black of the rook and then maybe an orangey type plaid for the outer boarder.  Any thoughts?  I'm a bit lost with this rug ~ I have to confess.  I think I'd like to start another geometric after this one is completed.

As an aside ~ this is the first time that I have hooked on monk's cloth and I really like it!!  It is so soft and the weave is so even.  I can see myself using this backing again.

I'd love it if you became a follower of my blog or left me a comment so that I know that you are out there in blog-land somewhere ;)

Happy Creating all!

My Crazy Shortcut Quilt is Hanging in my LQS

Here it is!  I finally finished the binding on my Crazy Short Cut Quilt and it is now hanging in my LQS, over the Christmas fabric, to advertise my class!  We had to fold it over at the top since the quilt was so big.  It would have been hitting people in the head LOL!  I was taking part in a teacher "meet and greet" at the shop yesterday and brought in the finished quilt with me ~ it made a big splash to say the least and a few people signed up for the class after seeing this quilt. 

I was fortunately able to pull this quilt out of my stash ~ I have an extensive collection of Christmas fabrics and I loved using them on this quilt.  The sashing was a fabric that I had started cutting for another quilt and then discovered that I didn't have quite enough of to complete the quilt so I was so happy to use it here.

Here's the back of the quilt hanging proud in the shop.  I just absolutely love how the back showcases all of the wonderful blue batiks and winter prints.  The gold thread looks even better than I had hoped on the back of the quilt.  I even like the way that the folded over area, from the front, looks from the back to really reinforce how reversible this type of quilting is.

After seeing my quilt one woman signed up for the class and promptly picked out Christmas prints for the front and golds for the back!  I thought ~ wow what an amazing idea!  The gold backing is going to look amazing.

I am off to Almonte today for day two of Fiberfest 2010 where a few of us are demonstrating rug hooking!  It's so much fun to show people how easy and beautiful rug hooking is.  I just love talking about hooking and sitting there hooking for the afternoon.  It's always surprising how much you can get accomplished in a short period of time.  I'll post some pictures tomorrow of our booth. 

The Sampler is *Finally* Finished!!

Yes!  I finished hand turning the binding to the back on my sampler quilt today!!!  I have been working on this quilt since the very first year of our local quilt guild in 2001.  Some of the blocks were the "block of the month" patterns that our guild did that year and others were some that I picked.  You can see the quilt back in the first few of my blog posts in 2006!!    The poor thing sat on my hand quilting frame for well over 2 years without any progress being made on it until I finally decided to take it off the frame and bring it to the quilting bee that I belong to to be finished by the group.  I am so thrilled that this quilt is finally finished!!  This quilt has been in the works longer than I have been blogging and hanging over my head for so long it is a relief to finish it!

I finally decided to take down my hand quilting frame in February of this year ~ you can read about my decision to take down the frame here.   It was a hard decision to make ~ since I kind of felt like I was quitting or giving up.  Then I realized that I really I had given up a long time ago.  I don't really know why because I love this quilt,  I loved putting it together and the quilting journey and it deserved to be finished!  But at some point I just lost my drive to complete it.  Luckily the ladies that I quilt with came to my rescue!

I think that I am going to go and put this quilt on the bed now!

My Crazy Shortcut Quilt is Together!

Yay!!!  I spent a whole bunch of time yesterday working on my Christmas Crazy Shortcut Quilt and I got the body of it all together!!!  I am in love with the way that it is turning out.  You know when you picture something in your head and it works out just the way that you conceptualized it?  It certainly doesn't always happen but so far so good for this one!  I just have the binding, label and sleeve to do now.

I even love the way that the back looks ~ I made it so that it could be reversible with all the winter/Christmas blue batiks and prints.  I bought all of these years ago and never did anything with them so I was thrilled to think of something that I could use them for and still showcase them.  SO now we have a Christmas quilt on one side and a reversible winter quilt on the other.

You can see my hanging sleeve on the back there ~ I lifted this idea from a friend that took my class at Sew Inspired.  She took her scraps from her backing pieces and simply pieced them together for a really nice sleeve.  I thought that it was an amazing idea so I used it here!  What do you think?

I'll post more pictures once I get the binding on.  I think that I am going to hand turn this binding to the back.  With all f the thread problems I've had I think that hand sewing it to the back would be less of a head-ache than machining it on.

If you have any comments or feedback I would absolutely love to hear from you ~ so don't be shy ~ reply!!

My Welcome Mat

I thought that I would show a picture of my finished Welcome Mat.  It is sitting on my deacon's bench right inside of my sewing room door.  My plan was that if I put that on the bench we would all stop throwing our stuff there ;)  It actually works to an extent but my boys keep throwing their hats on the bench LOL!  The background sky is higgidy piggidy again as I just absolutely love this affect.  It look like heat waves or wind.  I kept the hooking very easy and used a #8 cut.  Nice and fast and very relaxing to do.  That was exactly what I wanted.


This is a little mat that was a kit!  It measures just 8" x 5" and is a #6 cut.  I haven't worked from a kit for a while so this was a nice little project.  I think that the snowman is looking very frightened of the cardinal don't you think LOL!!??  And, that's either the world's largest cardinal or the world's smallest snowman!   This will be given away as a Christmas gift so it is nice to have it all done and ready to go.  I just have to make a bent wire hanger for it.  A friend gave me some wire to do this but I just haven't done it quite yet.

Don't forget to Follow my blog on the right if you're enjoying it and leave me a comment ~ I love to hear feed-back!

What I'm Working on Today

Tada!!!!!  The Crazy Short Cut Quilt blocks are all quilted with the decorative stitches!!  I can't even tell you how happy I am to be finished with the stitching LOL.  What I finally ended up doing was pulling the end off the Aurifil thread spool (you can do this apparently) and turned the thread around so that the thread was coming off the back instead of the front.  It seemed to unravel less ~ well that and I was sewing soooo sloooowwww.  Anyways they are finished so now I just have to arrange them and sash them.  The backings are all blue Christmas and winter batiks so I'll have to pay attention to the back placement as well ~ but I am not going to stess about that.

I have also been hand sewing the binding to the back of the sampler quilt that we recently took off the group hand-quilting frame.  I love the look of a hand turned binding on a hand appliqued (a few of the blocks are applique) and hand quilted quilt.  That process also takes a long time ~ especially in this heat!  Wow!  Anyone else getting this heat wave?

What I can tell you is that a sampler quilt would be easy peasy to make with the Accuquilt GO! cutter!  Since you could cut small amounts of different shapes.

Speaking of the Go!!  There are a few more Go! Giveaways!!
Ryan Walsh:  I'm Just a Guy Who Quilts and
Sew Many Ways
A Quilting Life
are doing Go! Giveaways!  You have to check these sites out!!!

By the way ~ I just put a Followers button on my blog ~ so I hope that you will all decide to follow my blog to let me know who you are ~ and that you are in fact there LOL!

Stash Ruminations

Have you seen some of the new fabrics from Lakehouse Fabrics?  I have to say that I absolutely love them!  They have a real 1930's influence but more updated.  Maybe it's the 1930's part that makes me absolutely love them but they feel so fresh to me!  have I done anything with any of these fabrics?  Or have I purchased any of these yummy prints?  No!!  :'(  I've been buying only what I need to buy to do projects out of my stash ~ and I think that this is really starting to wear on me. 

When I first started quilting everyone said "You've got to built up your stash!!"  So build a stash I did ~ and ~ can I just say that with a few exceptions I regret building that stash.  I love my 1930's prints ~ it's a little collection but I really like it.  I love my batiks and I use them a lot.  I also love my red and white collection and I have a quilt planned for them.  I do like that I have some background fabrics (creams and whites etc) set aside that I love to dig into when I start something new.  Pretty much everything else though I regret buying to "build my stash."  I have drawers of fabrics that now feel dated to me.  I sigh and look at the three meter cut of something I bought on sale but I don't really like the tone of anymore; or, it is difficult to match it with the fabrics that are out now.  These fabrics don't inspire me and I feel obligated to "use them up" and do something useful with them since I bought them.  I've been doing this for a couple years now, and, thankfully, my stash is decreasing.  My pile of UFO's has also been decreasing over this time.  I do feel lighter now that my stash is slowly going down ~ but ~ I'm getting tired of dealing with my stash and I am wondering if I need to take bigger steps.  Should I just list everything I don't like on Ebay?  Or give it to Victoria's Quilts?  Will I miss it when it's gone or feel liberated?  I don't know.

I've seen a trend the past couple years of quilters stash busting ~ who, like me, are trying to decrease their stash.  I've been trying to complete my UFO's and bust my stash but I think that I am in need of some inspiration.  Should I take more drastic steps to lighten my load ~ or ~ should I just give myself a break and buy what I like?

What I can say though is that when a new quilter asks me about building a stash I never tell them to build one.  I always say to buy for the project and make it.  Don't buy meters and meters of extra fabric (like I did) just buy what you like and make from that.  I still do recommend that people buy backgrounds, backings and batiks when there is a sale ~ but I never recommend that new quilters build a stash of random fabrics anymore.

Wow I feel lighter just having that off my chest LOL!!

Sewing Some Nine-Patches

I made some progress on my Dessert Nine-Patch quilt today ~ it's completely cut-out and I made 24 nine patches.  You can see my batik colours there.  There is a slight difference in the background batiks.  They are close together but different enough that I think that the change will stand out.  I love piecing with batiks!  The pima cotton is wonderful to work with and you can press wonderful seam-lines into it.

This is a free pattern from the Timeless Treasures web site although I first saw it in the Keepsake Quilting catalog.  I really didn't want to buy a kit when I knew that I had oodles of batiks in the tones I wanted just sitting in my stash LOL!

I did some more decorative stitching last night, to hem the edges of a hanging sleeve, and, I used a regular cotton thread.  The decorative stitches turned out great with absolutely no problems or thread breakage!  So the good, and bad, news is that it is the thread and not my machine!  Now if I can just get through the last two Crazy Quilt blocks I will be happy.  I've decided to switch threads and stitch with a straight stitch to do the quilt-as-you-go aspects of the quilt.  The less I have to deal with the thread that hates me the better LOL!!  I'll get back to those quilt blocks maybe later today or maybe tomorrow - sigh.

Trying to Do Some Decorative Stitches

I have been trying and trying to finish the decorative stitches on my Christmas Crazy Shortcut Quilt for the past couple of days and I am soooo frustrated!!!  I think that my machine really doesn't like the thread that I am using.  I am trying to use the Aurifil Aurilux Polyester thread in 36wt in the top and bobin.  I know that many, many people like this thread for machine quilting but I just don't like it for decorative stitching - I haven't tried it for machine quilting so I can't say anything about that.  The thread just flies off the spool and comes out in globs on the fabric.  You can actually see it unwinding (or unraveling) itself as well as it travels through the machine - so that after a few inches of sewing you can see that it is shredding at the needle :'(  Let me tell you I have tried almost everything I can!!

• I've tried a 90 metallic needle and a 100 topstitch and embroidery needles and I am still getting the thread shredding
• I've tried Sewer's Aid Lubricant
• I've re threaded my machine more times that I can count
• I've had the thread lying down on the horizonal spool pin and standing up on the vertical spool pin.  And, I've tried it on a cone holder off the machine.
• I've put a net on the thread and also tried a "Wonder Guard"
• I've decreased top tension and even tried increasing it
• I've tried a different spool of the thread

This thread just doesn't like me.  It's shredding and pinging off the spool.  Right now I have the thread on the horizontal spool pin with a wonder guard on it and a 100 topstitch needle with decreased tension and I am sewing very slowly.

This is a 36 block quilt and I only have 2 blocks left to do the decorative stitching on so I am going to slog through and finish these up using the thread that I have.  Sometimes a thread just doesn't like your sewing machine but will be fine in someone else's.  And sometimes a certain die-lot can be faulty.  Sometimes you just buy a lemon LOL.  I don't know what it is but I do know that I won't be using this thread for decorative stitches again LOL.

Has anyone used this thread before that could give me some words of advise?  I would certainly appreciate it ~ even if it's just to make me feel better!

Happy Stitching all!

Baltimore Bunnies QUilt on the Frame

Recently the quilt bee that I belong to, The Silver Thimbles, put a new quilt on the frame to be hand quilted in our group.  This is a pattern set called "Baltimore Bunnies" by Bunny Hill Designs.  Isn't it pretty??  The two side boarders are already quilted so you can't see those - as they are rolled up on the rollers; but, the inside of the quilt is all there.  I love the twist to the traditional Baltimore quilt by adding the bunnies.  They make a nice change.



I got a new camera card and card reader yesterday so I was able to actually take and upload pictures again!!  I bought that same card reader - since I was happy with it before I blew it out.  They wouldn't replace it for me since I didn't keep the receipt (I think anyways) but I am keeping the box and receipt from this one I can tell you that!  I find receipts from things that I have purchased years ago - but I somehow always manage to throw out the ones that I need at a latter date :-(

Another Go Giveaway!!!

Wow!  I thought that I would let you all know that Sweet P Quilting and Creations is giving away a GO! Cutter as well!!!  If you want one of these as badly as I do then you should Go Go Go to her site to check it out!!

I spent the day today cutting out a couple of quilts.  My rotary cutter is starting to feel old fashioned now LOL.  I cut out a nine-patch quilt from a free pattern on the Timeless Treasures web-site called the Desert Nine-Patch.  I love the way that this quilt is quilted.   I'm not sure if you can see the quilting in this picture but I think that you can on the web-site.  I'm going a bit browner with my colours.   Then I cut out another 4-patch 1-patch baby quilt for a friend that had twins - a boy and a girl.  So I am making her two baby quilts.

I'll try to upload a picture of the fabrics I'm using but I somehow destroyed my camera card readers yesterday!  They both did the same thing (got all hot and smelly) so we think that it's the camera card not the readers - although the readers do appear to be dead as well . . .sigh . . I have no luck with card readers :-(

Accuquilt GO Cutter

Have you all seen this cutter? This is the Accuquilt Go Cutter and it is so cute! Anyone have it? It looks absolutely amazing to me and I have been really considering getting one ~ I'm not a huge fan of the cutting stage of quilting (especially applique) and I think this might just be an answer to my prayers!

Canton Village Quilt Works is giving away a GO cutter with multiple ways to win ~ so I thought that I would share it here with you all as well! The only thing I can think of that would be better than owning one of these is to get one for free!

We just got back from two weeks vacation in British Columbia and I put my SD card into the card reader but put the cord into the wrong port! I fried my new card reader I think :-( But I didn't fry the card which is great! i was going to post a bunch of pictures from things that I have been working on but that might have to wait for another day LOL! I do promise to be a better blogger ~ I do have finished projects I just haven't been blogging :-/

On the Frame!

Woohoo!
My quilt is finally on the frame and progressing :-D After taking it off my own hand-quilting frame I felt such a sense of relief - and now that it is on my regular bee's frame, being quilted, I feel so happy! This quilt was pieced so many years ago, and, I loved piecing it, so, it needs to be finished - badly. My quilting bee - the Silver Thimbles, were gracious enough to agree to finish hand-quilting it when my time came to put a quilt on the frame. Looking at it now I love this quilt again. It has transformed itself from a source of stress to a great joy again and that makes me very happy. I hope that we all enjoy quilting it together ;)

I'm (Locally) Famous!

Only in a small town, or community, could my quilts make the cover of both of our local newspapers! The EMC is our local area-wide newspaper and the Chronicle is our town's newspaper. That's me on the right ;) I couldn't believe it when my quilts made the cover of *both* of the newspapers!! Although I am not in the left picture that's my flying geese quilt. I just had to laugh when I saw the papers this weekend. Our guild's show was a success and I now have the feeling that the photographers liked my quilts :-D It was two different photographers as well - so I must say that's quite validating ;)

BTW I've finally realized why I haven't been blogging as much as I was. I changed over from a PC to a MAC a couple of years ago. I absolutely *love* my Mac and wouldn't change it for anything. But, the PC had card slots o take different types of memory cards from cameras etc. and the MAC doesn't. So, I had to get an external card reader - I got one that hangs off the back of the machine. I hated it from day one since it didn't stay in the machine; but, rather, it would become disconnected half way through an import and it took so long to import photos. So, blogging became a real pain. I recently got a new card-reader that plugs in via a cord and it doesn't become disconnected if you breath on it! So - blogging is fun again! Amazing how something so little can change everything for you huh?

Rug Update and New Christmas Crazy Quilt!

Hi all! I thought that I would post an update on the spring welcome rug I am doing! I only have a small piece of the sky left to do and the boarder. I thought that a nice bright blue boarder would anchor the rug around the edge. I'll have to see if I can find a nice bright blue to whip the edges with as well. I think that I might rip out the bottom right rays of the sun though ~ or rather add to it and make the bottom right rays a bit longer to balance the sun more. It's not horrible bit I'm not quite happy with it. I always think that if you're not happy with it while you're working on it you won't be happy with it later! The one good thing about rug hooking though is that you can go back and fix it at pretty much any point ;) That's very comforting.
I'm teaching Crazy Short-Cut Quilts again and decided to get to work on the Christmas Crazy Quilt that I had cut out quite a while ago. I did a fairly simple pattern, with large pieces, to show-case the fabrics a bit more. And, since this will be a 30 block quilt, there will be a bit less decorative stitching later so a bit less work in the stitching! I know it seems odd to be working on a Christmas Quilt in the spring but I did start this in the winter :-D I'd love to have another couple bed sized Christmas quilts around. I just love the way that they look on the beds for the Christmas season. I think I'll use a gold rayon thread for the decorative stitching - or I may try a polyester to see if I get a bit less thread breakage than with the rayon.

What do you think? If you have any comments or questions please feel free to leave them here and let me know what you think!

Two Students' Crazy Short-Cut QUilts!

First I apologize for the horrible quality of these photos!! My camera was dieing while I was trying to take these so I did the best that I could!

I thought that I would share a couple photos of two of the people's quilts who took my Crazy Short Cut Quilts class at Sew Inspired. I think that they turned out just wonderfully so I had to share!
This is Sandy's CSCQ that she made using Kaffe Fassett fabrics on the front and back. She did the 30 block quilt or bed sized for her daughter. She used mostly satin stitches so the stitching really really shows up and is absolutely spectacular! It was a real show-stopper quilt that got a lot of attention at the quilt show. And deservedly I think! The rich colours just draw you in.

Her lucky daughter!



This is Nicole's CSCQ! She made it from her stash and it turned out wonderfully! It has a really Christmasy feel to my eye ~ then again I just love Christmas quilts so much so I probably see them everywhere LOL! Can you believe by the second class in the series Nicole had two sets of blocks done!? What a hard-worker! Nicole also used mostly satin stitches and the look is truly spectacular. These two quilts really make me re-think my love of the lighter antique stitches on my machine hmmm. The lighter stitches are definately faster but the heavier stitches really have a more dramatic effect to them. It's a compromise I suppose!

Quilt Show Pictures!

I know that these pictures have been posted before but I thought that I would show them again hanging in the show. Unfortunately my camera batteries died after only a couple minutes.
Note to self ~ pack extra batteries!

This is the Eureka Quilt I did a couple years ago.










Whole-cloth Welsh Beauty.
This is a pre-printed panel from Benartex.
This quilt is entirely hand quilted and took me over 4 years to complete! The number of hours I put into this quilt is staggering o even contemplate! LOL!

A couple of my sweat-shirt jackets on display.

This is the crazy patch jacket.

And the whole cloth oriental jacket.

I didn't want to put in too many jackets :-D







My flying geese quilt. Made using the Eleanor Burns flying geese ruler and a whole bunch of left-over fabrics. I way over-bought this line of fabric and then wanted to use a lot of it up. By this point I had used country tones a lot and wanted to move on to something brighter. but, I felt like I had to use what I had before I could move on. Ever feel like that? It can certainly bog you down.





1930's Reproduction Fabric Dreden Plate Quilt. Hand appliqued and pieced in my regular bee. This quilt makes me smile every time I look at those fabrics.

Progress on the Welcome Rug

I thought that I would show you my progress on my little Welcome Rug. So far - so good I think. I did the lettering first to make sure that it was fairly even before the other hooking distorted it a bit.

I dyed the blue for the background the other night using a Cushings dye and I like the effect of having to slightly different tones for the higgly-piggly, or C's and S's, that I am hooking for the sky. I loved that effect for my Halloween Rug so I thought that duplicating it for the sky would be nice.

You can see the "bead-stitch," or as GRS calls it "alternating loop stitch," around the inner boarder of the rug. I love those two colours together so I decided to do a couple of the leaves in that amazing chartreuse green. I'm not sure what I will do for the final boarder ~ maybe a darker blue. We'll see!

Last Rug

I just wanted to quickly share this amazing link to a great rug! The site is called Mom's Rug and it is a site dedicated to a woman's last rug that she will probably make. It shows a hooked rug by Adeanya Hunt that is 10 x 11 feet and depicts Audubon birds and wild plants and it is absolutely spectacular! She started it in 1969 and finished it in 2006. Since she is now in her 80's she thinks that this will be her last rug. It really is something to check out ~ the site is very nicely done and the rug is a real hierloom that will be treasured for generations to come.

Getting Rid of the Hand Quilting Frame & Commision Baby Quilt

Well I have a bit of a confession to make. Ever since I really took up rug hooking I haven't been hand quilting on my frame at all! I mean not at all. It's horrible - I haven't sat down to quilt on this frame for well over 2 years and I have been feeling really bad about it for a long time now. My quilt frame has become a storage area that looks like a junk pile and is a constant source of nagging anxiety. You can see the frame in the same position in January of 2006!!!

So! I came to a decision. In my regular, weekly, quilting bee I am up next to put a quilt on the frame. I've been getting so nervous and anxious because I don't have a quilt top ready to put on the frame. Today I took this quilt off my hand quilting frame, so that I could bring it to my group to be hand quilted, and, we took down this frame. Yes, we actually took the whole frame down. I cleared out the stuff and freed up the space in my quilting studio. I actually freed up 4 feet by 10 feet of space that was doing nothing but collecting junk for a couple years. I feel really good about my decision. I've actually removed two sources of undue anxiety from my quilting life by allowing the quilt to be done by my group instead of expecting myself to do it. I'm not sure what I want to do with the quilt frame yet though. I may keep it - who knows maybe I'll start hand-quilting at home again. Or, maybe I'll get sell it or give it away. I can always get a quilting frame top to my rug hooking frame if I decide to start hand quilting again.

It was a hard decision to make - to realize that I might never sit down at that frame again - but that the quilt was still there calling to me LOL! I feel much better though. Now to rearrange a few things and make some use of that space! I feel the need for some storage units :D

This was a baby quilt I made for a lady's new grand-daughter. It is a commission piece that she picked the pattern (yes the 4-patch, 1-patch) and the fabric for and I did the work! I'm really happy with how it turned out and I just love the colours. Even though I am not usually a pink person - I do love the softness of this quilt. The back is a beautiful soft pink flannel that a little baby will love to cuddle up in.

I love making baby quilts :)

Twin Baby Quilts and a New Rug hooking Project

I'm starting a new rug hooking project Woohoo!! A friend of mine designed this and let me trace this out onto burlap so that I could hook this. I thought that it would look amazing on the bench right inside the door to my sewing room. The outer boarder is the largest that it can be so I'll have to see if this rug gets a boarder at all after I hook the center LOL! I think some nice bright colours for the tulips and a mottled blue for the sky would look cheerful and welcoming. If I can do a little boarder I might try the bead-stitch using two colours to give it a bit of pizazz. I finished drawing this last night ~ I only had the straight lines of the boarder to do but that is the least fun part of drawing a pattern I find so I think that's why I put it off.

I found this little video on Gene Shepherd's blog and thought that I would share it with you. It is Gayle Burton talking about Rug Hooking on her local news channel. Her work is amazing and the video is definitely worth a watch! She has a beautiful series of stair-kicks that I just love ;)

I've also finished two more baby quilts for twin boys! I just love the light blue and brown colour combination that is popular now. Brown is such a soothing colour ~ but I know that some people find it too drab for baby quilts. I am sure that the parents will like these ones though ;) And, yes I know, I know, I did the 4-patch 1-patch baby quilt again ~ but I just love that pattern! I am even now in the process of making another one of these quilts, as a commission, so you'll be seeing at least one more in this pattern. I may have to find another favorite baby quilt pattern soon. This one is out of my favorite baby quilt book by Ursula Reikes Quilts for Baby: Easy as ABC. It is a great book that I highly recommend as it is full of simple, usable and beautiful patterns.

Do any of you have a baby quilt pattern book that you just love that you might recommend to me?

Asian Beauty ~ Crazy Shortcut Quilt

Hi all!
I spent a chunk of Saturday in my LQS doing a few demos for my Crazy Shortcut Quilt class, which is coming up tomorrow, and, I was so inspired by the method that I went home and dug out a fat quarter bundle of Asian fabrics I had purchased a few years ago and I cut them up to make this quilt! The blocks were completely pieced by the end of the evening and the backing pieces were cut that evening as well. The green, large-scale, print was cut from left-overs from a whole-cloth sweatshirt jacket and so I put that and the gold print on the back. It's great to use up some of my stash and some left-overs and achieve such great results! I have to say that I am so pleased with the way this quilt turned out! The large pieces really show-case the Asian prints and the gold rayon thread makes the quilt so rich ~ which I love!

If you're interested in the class we are running a second class at Sew Inspired in Arnprior and there will be another session in the spring at The Quilting Quarters in Almonte. I am so excited to be teaching this method since it really is a stress-free way to quilt and this method of quilt-as-you-go gives a smooth finish with no hand sewing!!

A Couple Special Baby Quilts

Over the Holidays we found out that one of our close friends' children was diagnosed with leukemia at under 2 years of age. I contacted a friend of mine who works for Victoria's Quilts Canada and our local group had this wonderful baby quilt ready to go so she gave it to me to send. The elephant quilting in the feature squares is absolutely adorable :D I made both of our friends' children soft flannel pillowcases so that I could send something quickly to them to give hem some comfort. It is absolutely amazing how the top pillowcase matches the quilt so beautifully! The reds and blues are an amazing match and none of us could believe it! This quilt and the pillowcases have been sent off to hopefully bring some love and comfort to the children and to the family. Victoria's Quilts is an amazing organization and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for this wonderful quilt!

I was also able to make another special baby quilt for friends who adopted a little boy from Russia just recently. I really wanted this quilt to tell a bit of a story ~ to reflect his journey to his new family. I found the map fabric and thought that it would work well. In the bottom right corner (above the log cabins) you can see a rail fence block that is actually the Russian Flag. I then made flying geese flying away from the Russian Flag and towards the maple leaf block to show his journey. The log cabin blocks have a red center to symbolize fire in the hearth or love in the home. Then in the corners I twisted the log cabins to show that they are a non-traditional family but that the love is still at the heart of the home. A couple more maple leaves in the corners balanced the quilt. I quilted the quilt in a large meander with airplanes to show how he crossed the map. On the back of the quilt is an amazing flannel fabric with maple leaves on it from Northcott fabrics called Winter Sports to celebrate Canada hosting the Olympic Games. There are also little Inukshuks on one of the red and blue fabrics that I just love ~ from the same fabric line. I love how this quilt turned out and I loved putting so much thought and meaning into the layout and block choice. The whole family seemed to really like the quilt and appreciate all of the meaning.

Crazy Short-Cut Quilt!

Hi all!

Here is my Victorian-styled Crazy Short-Cut Quilt! I used a Robyn Pandolph fat-quarter pack from several years ago that was given to me and I didn't know what to do with! It seemed to suit the crazy quilt method so when I wanted to try it out I used it for this quilt - and - am I ever happy with the results! This is a truly amazing quilt-as-you-go method that has *no* handwork and *no* bulky seams! I love it! It also uses your decorative stitches to do the quilting so even those people who are not comfortable with their free-motion quilting skills will be able to achieve spectacular results with their deorative stitches :D

I am excited to be teaching this quilt in the New Year at Sew Inspired in Arnprior On Jan. 23, Feb 13, and March 6, and, The Quilting Quarters in Almonte on May 22, 29 and June 12. I am thrilled to be able to show this method to others since I really think that this is the best quilt-as-you-go method that I've ever seen! If you're interested in the classes please give the shop a call ;)

Halloween Stair Riser/Kick is Finished!

I finished my first Halloween Stair Kick a few days after Halloween - but - at least it will be ready for next Halloween. I figure if I do one of these a year, or two, then before I know it I will have about 6 to go up the stairs before the turn in my stair case. I whipped the edge of this with a variegated wool yarn and I love the way that it gives some action to the edge. Kind of like an alien tractor beam beaming the little guy back up to the ship LOL!

Next I am going to start on some Christmas ones I think. These are really nice little projects at just 5" x 25" and work up fast and easily! I was thinking maybe some holly leaves, or Christmas ornaments, or a row of lights, a candy cane etc. All nice simple ideas that would translate well into this size. I think for the stair risers the KISS principle should be in full force! The simpler the better for sure.

As for some everyday risers I was either thinking birds or fish. I am really leaning towards fish to be honest. I love fish!! And you could do something really neat where the bottom riser is the ocean floor and have it slowly work up with common plants in the sides etc. And feature a different type of fish in each one. Then at the very top I could do some birds flying around on top of the water. My husband is a bird-watcher and I love fish so this might be a nice little concession for him :D

Any thoughts?

Christmas Panel for an Auction

Sometimes I get asked for donations to various auctions or draws for churches or charities etc. I always like to have a few panels like this one or place-mat panels around so that I can whip up a really quick donation; so, I don't have to say no and I also don't have to spend hours and hours of time to make something!! I usually pick up the Christmas panels, like this one, after Christmas so that the cost is lower thus making the donation rather painless time-wise and money-wise LOL! I figure that it works out for everyone :)

I did the inside out, "pillow-case," method here so I didn't have to put on a binding. For a seasonal panel like this one, or for place-mats, I just don't see the need to spend a million hours on the binding. And, when the panel has a nice edge on it, like this one, the binding just doesn't seem necessary!!

Tomorrow will be a busy day!! I am teaching two season of machine quilted feathers at The Quilting Quarters in Almonte; 1-3 pm and 4-7 pm. It should be lots of fun!! I do love quilting feathers and I strive to help other people enjoy it as well!

New Rug Started!

Well after I finally finished my Halloween rug I thought that I should get going and start another one. Inspiration can strike in the oddest places I must say! I bought some Yoplait yogurt tubes for my kids and they had these ones with aliens on on them. I looked at the alien on one of them and thought that it would make an excellent Halloween stair riser rug! I would like to hook a set of stair risers for everyday; but, also a smaller set (for my first six or so stairs that come before the turn in my stair case) of Halloween stair risers and also Christmas stair risers. So I drew a 5" x 25" rectangle on some old dot-matrix printer paper and filled it with a drawing of the alien from the tube. Then I transferred it to burlap and started to hook it last night. I'm using the same green that I used on my halloween rug. So far so good! There is another type of alien on the other tubes but he's much less likely to be a child in a Halloween costume, unlike this one, so, I'm not going to hook that one.

It truly is amazing where we can find hooking, or applique, patterns if we keep our eyes open and look for them :D

I Finally Finished my Haunted House Rug!!

Yeehaw I finally finished my Shelly Atkinson Haunted House rug and I did it before Halloween :D I have finished everything on this rug completely, including; the edge whipping, the binding tape on the back and a label and hanging sleeve! I didn't want to post the finished rug until I really was finished as an incentive to really getting it all done.

I just love this design and the wools that I used; so, I can honestly say that I have enjoyed the process, that started in June, and, I love the finished product!

I just need to get some jewelry wire to do the bottom cat's whiskers. I tried hooking them and stitching them afterward and I didn't like the effect so I think maybe jewelry wire will work. What do you all think?

I don't know if you have seen this video on Youtube for Herringbone Whipped Edge but the binding looks so nice like this! I just wish that she was explaining it a bit in a voice-over. I would like to know if the slight gaps between the strands are intentional or not????

A Weekend of Hooking

Wow what a lot of hooking I did this weekend!! We had a great time this weekend hooking away and meeting new people/potential hookers ;) Fiberfest was great and well attended - it was such a nice weekend so I think that people are trying to take advantage of the great fall weather we've been having to do things outside.

I got a lot of hooking done on my Haunted House rug between the 5 Minute Hooking Challenge and Fiberfest since my last picture on the rug! I bought two shades of red wool to do the far right house that I love! I'm fairly pleased with how it is turning out but I think that I might rip out the unfinished ghost and use more of the blue/white wool on him as I think that he is too white, and, will stand out too much, but, it is hard to say right now. I like the other ghost, on the left, better than this one so far. What do you all think?

I am tired but happy after a whole weekend of talking and hooking :D Maybe I'll do some more hooking again tomorrow LOL!

Rug Hooking Demo at Fiberfest this Weekend

Wow am I ever tired tonight! Today was Fiberfest in Almonte and 3 fellow hookers and myself sat and hooked and talked about hooking and talked and talked and hooked some more!!! Whew! It was absolutely beautiful outside today so not as many people went through as last year but we had a great time and met lots of interested potential hookers and lots of hookers and quilters :D

Most of the rugs in the display are my friend Bev's - she's been hooking for many years so she has a lot of wonderful rugs which made making a display very easy this year! Unfortunately we really needed the display to be easy to make this year since we could only set up this morning (instead of yesterday) so we had a lot less time to get everything ready and looking great! Fortunately many of Bev's rugs are larger and took up more space LOL! What will we do next year now that we have displayed so many of hers??? LOL!

Fiberfest runs tomorrow as well so I'll be hooking again on my Haunted House rug. I am getting a lot of work done and am very happy with the way that it is turning out so far. I bought some wool to whip the edges today that I think will really look amazing on the edges. I'll take a picture and show my progress tomorrow.